POE experience

[san diego 407]

I just wanted to share my experience with POE. I travel a lot on business and since I live in San Diego never travel abroad through LAX since from San Diego it is much more time-effective to travel to Europe through East Cost major hubs. As a USC I never experienced long lines at the passport controls. At the same time I never seen long lines at non-citizen counters either. This time I went to Russia to support my fiancee during interview and come home with her. I did not want to gamble lay-overs on the East Coast and decided to book direct flight for both of us to LAX and then drive to San Diego. Just a little background: we have probably one of the most clear cases of K1. We knew each other for 2 years, meeting every 1.5 months. All of our parents also met and my daughter met with my fiancee. Thus, we did not have any problems on the USCIS stage OR embassy. In fact at the embassy they did not ask for any evidence and after two formal questions immediately approved K1 (1 min total). Little I knew about our passport control officers if they encounter foreigners! POE LAX:

1) This was the longest line to get to the passport control officer. 1 hr!! Never seen anything like that before!

2) Dirt, children crying, hot, smelly! Worst I ever seen.

3) Officers are slow and rude!

4) When I and my fiancee came to the officer she immediately stated in a highly arrogant manner: "You know, I can refuse you entry!" before we said anything!

5) She was questioning my fiancee for like 20 mins about me!! While 1 hr line was behind! It turned out that POE was the biggest hurdle in our visa journey (maybe because others were smooth aside from waiting)

I guess the less educated people are the more they want to show their importance or their power.

The bottom line is: never go through LAX! This is the worst POE!

[flanags 0]

'oh NO !!! Sorry about that hassle. I too (USC) travel a bit, we live in Australia so we go through LAX all the time. I'm also disappointed with our experience at LAX and how dirty and a mess that airport is. I always wonder what immigrants or foreign travelers think of the USA if this is there first impression of America.

Very glad things worked out for you. We too have a "straight forward" case - been married 6 years with three kids together and knew each other 5 yrs before getting married. Although 90% of all flights travel to LAX from OZ I'm wondering if we should just pay a little extra to have him go through San Fran. Thanks for the heads up - I may do some more digging to see if there are any others who have posted their experience of POE via LAX.

[san diego 407]

Well... Given your route I would not change entire plans just because of this. If you had a choice I would try to avoid it, this is all. I don't think they really have the power to turn it down, to be honest... However, this IS nerve-racking especially if you are USC waiting right there for your fiancee! AND another officer came to me saying "Oh! This is the first time I see K1 taking that long!" This was very reassuring!

[Obama 2012 1,714]

that's a bummer.

What can you expect from LAX though.... They only are rude because you are "legal." Had you border jumped, they would have just smiled and waved your through.

[san diego 407]

that's a bummer.

What can you expect from LAX though.... They only are rude because you are "legal." Had you border jumped, they would have just smiled and waved your through.

LOL!!! Completely agree!

[joojoo78 1]

Okay what do you really expect from them? half of them know they are stuck in a dead end job and TSA and some good portion of our civilian/government does a half a$$ hiring people, proof enough through the process of the visa applications "cough" USCIS. Never in my life I ran into such bs racism EVER! I had to call up TSA after they harassed my GF through POE, I mean really if our gonna be racist at least show some type of professions in it, I also stated there is alot of people thats not employed right now in the u.s that I know for sure tha will do their job 1000% better than what they have now. Then the guy tries to brag saying oh they are very stressed out, which i stopped him saying I served in a warzone for the past decade so you workers can represent our country in the worse way possible.

For anyone dealing with a a$$ at POE, just BROWN NOSE like no other, nothing else will help your situation. if you want make a complaint to your local congress.

Okay what do you really expect from them? half of them know they are stuck in a dead end job and TSA and some good portion of our civilian/government does a half a$$ hiring people, proof enough through the process of the visa applications "cough" USCIS. Never in my life I ran into such bs racism EVER! I had to call up TSA after they harassed my GF through POE, I mean really if our gonna be racist at least show some type of professions in it, I also stated there is alot of people thats not employed right now in the u.s that I know for sure tha will do their job 1000% better than what they have now. Then the guy tries to brag saying oh they are very stressed out, which i stopped him saying I served in a warzone for the past decade so you workers can represent our country in the worse way possible.

For anyone dealing with a a$$ at POE, just BROWN NOSE like no other, nothing else will help your situation. if you want make a complaint to your local congress.

[Travis and Meghan 24]

Just thought i might share a postive experince with LAX, lol. the last time i went through there i was only on the ESTA and the officer ( who was very friendly) asked why i was visiting, asked if i'd been before to which i replied that i'm visiting my fiance and haven't been here before etc. i had to line up for an hour i reckon to get through but once i got up there it only took five minutes and it was over. vvery pleasant experince. my Unlce travels through LAX a few times a year aswell but on business, he's never had any issues except once or twice missed a connecting flight because he didn't schedule enough time between.

I have my POE at LAX on a K1 visa in a couple days so i guess i'll see how that goes, lol. But i just wanted to share a good story about LAX, there's probably bad things about every POE, lol